I have planted 3 trays of flower seeds over the past couple of days, and I am amazed at the speed of germination of some of the seeds, and wondering if it has something to do with using ionized, alkaline water. (pH 8.5, micro-clustered, from my Kangen Water machine), or if it’s just the heat mat and the covered tray. I guess I’d have to do a side by side test to be sure, but I am just happy they are thriving!

Yesterday, I planted 1 tray of alyssum seeds – today many of them are already up. I also planted Morning Glory, which had been soaked overnight, and quite a few of those are up as well.

Spring season has started, if only indoors – with heat mats, and lamps. While it’s hailing and snowing outside, it sure is nice to have seedlings to watch, tend and care for.

On February 12, I got one Bio Dome planted, with Broccoli, Cabbage, Mustard Greens and Parlsley.

And once it’s been planted, the top goes on and the Bio Dome goes on the heat mat, at about 75ºF.

Today, 12 days later, I am hoping I did not allow them to get too leggy before moving them off the heat mat and under lights. I moved them only 6 days after they were sown, on February 18. The missing spots are for Parsley.

Parsley ALWAYS takes longer to germinate, and I am in fact surprised that all but one of the 18 seedlings are up today, just 12 days after planting. Sometimes I have had them take as long as 3 weeks. They must be liking getting watered with Kangen Water. Soon they will join the rest of the seedlings under lights in the garage.

And here are some of this years onions. If you want to see the process for starting onion seeds, watch my video from last year.

I just discovered this excellent tool for planning your seed starting – spring or fall.

http://www.chestnut-sw.com/growform.htm

You need to know your first and last frost date. Once you know those dates, you are ready to start planning!

Happy Planting!

I am getting ready for the 2011 growing season, and I am starting with an order from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

I need to get my spring onion seeds planted quite soon, so that is the driving force behind getting this order placed right now.

I have quite a few onions in the ground already, planted last fall.

For the spring season, I am going with tried and true Yellow of Parma, a superb keeper onion, along with a new (for me) variety called Stuttgarter, which is also supposed to be a good keeper.

Among my fall planted onions I have quite a few Walla Wallas, as well as Candy, Red Wing, White Wing, Red Torpedo, Red Crimson, Stockton Yellow, Solano White.  I also got some leeks in the ground in the fall and they are coming along very nicely.

Some of the fall planted onions are in the ground, in my raised square foot garden beds, some are in earthboxes. Below are a couple of photos of the ones in Earthboxes.

I also ordered a few other things from Baker Creek.

The pepper Piemento De Padron, a hot pepper I purchased as a seedling last season, and absolutely loved, so it is more than likely on my “must grow every year” from now on.

I also ordered up an eggplant I have never tried before, called Ping Tung, and a spinach I have never tried called Merlo Nero.

Lastly, I decided to add to my Nasturtium collection with King Theodore and Jewel Peach Melba.

Ingredients: Peppers, Olive Oil, Celtic Salt.

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Lay whole peppers in Pyrex dish.

Drizzle with a generous amount of olive oil.

Sprinkle with large crystal celtic salt.

Roast until skins brown and loosen (45 minutes – 1 hour)

When cool enough to handle, remove skins & stems, but keep seeds.

Toss peppers & seeds back into pan to gather up the juice, oil and salt.

Fabulous way to use a large pepper harvest!

Wonderful ever-producing Broccoli!

On November 6, I harvested my first head of fall broccoli. At the same time I harvested from my spring planted broccoli seedlings, that were set out in very early April. It has continued producing all season long, and I am still harvesting.

The trick to getting a continuos harvest of broccoli is to cut the first big head fairly high up. The broccoli will then continue to produce nice small little side shoots, providing you with an ongoing supply of broccoli all season long!

Here is a photo of one of my fall planted broccoli plants, as well as my harvest of both fall broccoli and spring planted side shoots, all harvested on November 6.

I really did not think I would even get any watermelons this year, since it’s been such a cool, strange and short summer – but I decided to put them in an earthbox this year, placed on the concrete in my side yard, figuring that way they would get maximum heat.

The side yard gets lots of sun, and the concrete gets hot and creates a little micro-climate of perfect growing conditions.

So, the other day I harvested my first watermelon of the year, and it wasn’t bad!

A few little things from the 2010 garden:

Pimento de Padron
Delicious to pronounce, wonderful to eat,
with perfect piquancy, depth and many nuanced notes

A single predatory wasp will consume more aphids and other leaf eaters than a squadron of lady bugs. Best of all: they have a live-and-let live attitude towards humans. This is a good reason to provide them with watering stations like the one below.

In the Three Sisters Planting, corn, beans and squash thrive together and all benefit each other. Here Scarlet Runner Beans are climbing on the corn. Humming birds love the Scarlet Runner Beans.

Accidental, no-effort sunflower patch: We spilled blackoil sunflower seeds onto a 3 inch deep patch of fine barkdust that was on our lawn. In no time there was a small, thriving sunflower thicket.

It’s been a cool summer, and everything was late, oh so late. But finally the harvesting has begun. This is why I garden!

Cucumbers are finally coming into their own. These were grown in an Earthbox – this is the first year for me growing cucumbers in an earthbox, and clearly, they are thriving.

Any ideas on how to use them are welcome! Wish they could be kept for winter!

And another plant that absolutely thrives in the Earthbox is Eggplant. Here is one example of Hansel in an Earthbox:

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